This invention relates to a liquid storage and dispensing containers, including those suitable for dispensing motor oil into the oil filler hole of an engine.
It has long been known to be difficult to add lubricating oil to an engine through the pouring spout of a conventional oil storage and dispensing bottle (typically of one quart capacity) without spilling some on the engine. Such spilling reduces the motor oil delivered to the engine for use, and leaves oil on external surfaces of the engine. The latter leaves the user with the time consuming and messy task of trying to mop up the spilled oil which, despite best efforts, often leaves a film and/or hidden puddles of oil on the engine, there to attract dirt and place coated electrical cables and their contacts at risk of damage. Typically, the user removes the cap from the spout of the bottle, tips the open end of the spout toward an oil filler hole often tucked down among other engine parts, and hopes that most of the oil stream from the bottle goes into the oil filler hole.
Funnels have been used but are of limited help. Disposable paper funnels have been known to collapse in use and permanent plastic or metal funnels are oil covered after first use, messy to store, and pick up dirt and grit which may be carried, with the next added quart of oil, at some time in the future, into the engine.
In an attempt to overcome these problems, it has been known to provide a bottle for dispensing motor oil having a pouring spout, and a cap normally closing such pouring spout for storage and removable for dispensing, including an elongate push rod having a head stored in the spout and a bottom end advanceable from the bottom of the bottle, after removal of the cap and inversion of the bottle and insertion of the spout into an engine oil filler hole.
Patents have been granted which disclose prior devices of that general type.
For example, Debow, et al. U.S. Pat. No 5,123,570 discloses an oil dispensing bottle in which a push rod extends from a resilient area at the bottom of a bottle into the dispensing spout. A closure at the top of the spout retains oil in the bottle after removal of the cap and inversion of the bottle with the spout down over or in an oil filler opening of an engine. However, the closure is a frangible seal diaphragm and the top of the push rod includes a semi-circular cutter head adapted to partially tear away the frangible seal diaphragm to allow oil flow out the spout and yet prevent the frangible fuel diaphragm from escaping into the engine.
Huffman U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,042 provides an elongate push rod topped by a poppet valve-like head which in storage is normally clamped atop the spout by a threaded cap. After removing the cap, inverting the bottle, and inserting the spout down into the oil filler hole of an engine, the user can advance the push rod further into the spout to push the poppet valve-like head away from the open end of the spout, allowing oil to flow from the bottle into the engine.
However, the present invention provides the substantial improvements over such prior devices. In one aspect of Applicant""s device herein disclosed, the user can, with minimal effort and personal contact with the oil being dispensed, push the head back into reliable, fixed, sealing engagement within the spout to stop oil flow from the still partially full bottle, remove the partly full bottle from the vicinity of the engine and thereafter, at leisure, replace the cap on the bottle, should it be desired to add only part of the contents of the bottle to the engine, and save the remaining contents for use at a later time.
In contrast, Debow destroys its frangible seal to enable dispensing and such seal cannot later be restored to sealing engagement with the spout.
Also in contrast, Huffman does not suggest that its poppet valve-like head 13, after being displaced from sealed engagement with the spout for dispensing oil, could, merely by manually pushing the poppet valve-like head back against the top of the spout, restore the oil spill proof seal therebetween. It appears that the user could with one hand push the poppet valve-like head back against the spout. However, that would not appear to establish a self-sustaining sealed closure of the spout by the head. More particularly, grooves on the push rod bottom portion engage the inner annular ribs of the bellows, but in an axially relatively slidable way, with limited friction at most, both to allow assembly of the Huffman device and to allow upward compression of the bellows to push the head up off the top of the spout. The latter causes a length of push rod to be displaced out of its former contact with annular ribs of the bellows and these ribs engage more closely axially spaced points on the push rod bottom portion. Thus, merely pushing the head downward against the spout causes the push rod either to slide further into a relaxed, extended bellows or by friction extend and hence relax the bellows. Thus, the bellows can no longer supply its original downward (inward) pull on the push rod so as to pull the poppet valve-like head sealingly against the top of the spout.
In further contrast to the known prior art, the present invention in at least one of its aspects, positively maintains the push rod head and bottom portion respectively coaxial with the spout and a selected portion of the bottom of the bottle in both of their storage and dispensing positions, avoids substantial reduction in the effective volume of the bottle, avoids requiring reconfiguration of the bottom of the bottle in a difficult to mold shape or addition of further structural elements to the bottom of the bottle, and avoids requiring additional assembly operations to operatively locate the bottom of the push rod with respect to the bottom of the bottle.
These and other advantages of the present invention over the prior art will be apparent upon reading the following description and examining the accompanying drawings.
This invention relates to a liquid storing and dispensing package comprising a bottle having a dispensing spout, a cap normally closing the dispensing spout for storage, and a push-in portion in the bottom of the bottle. A push rod has a head stored in the spout and responsive to actuation of the push-in portion to emerge with the spout and allow liquid dispensing. In one aspect of the invention, the push rod head can be refixed and resealed within the spout, by one hand of the user, to prevent further dispensing and to save part of the contents of the bottle for later dispensing, prior to the installation of the cap.